Wreck Beach Washrooms
VANCOUVER
British Colombia
Wreck Beach is one of Vancouver’s most popular – and only nude – beach. Located below the cliffs at the edge of UBC in Pacific Spirit Park, access is provided only by a staircase of hundreds of steps, and there have previously been no washrooms beyond port-a-potties on the beach. In a significant effort to improve the user experience at Wreck Beach, we worked with Metro Vancouver to provide beach-level pit toilet buildings.
Easy to clean and maintain, safe and inviting for users.
The project included an extensive and comprehensive public consultation process, and toilet rooms were constructed with an eye to sustainable, durable materials that would be resistant to vandalism, easy to clean and maintain, and safe and inviting for users.
VERTICAL BEACH LOGS
Design of the facilities was influenced very much by their surroundings. The structures employ a collection of metal rounds of varying dimension clustered on a sandy dais at the edge of the forest, an obvious reference to the forest trees, vertical beach logs, and other abandoned naval and logging artifacts washed ashore over decades. The cylindrical metal pipes vary in diameter and height with purpose, some for structural need, others to provide privacy screen, still others to provide venting for the gases created in the pit-toilet proper. The painted metal is easy to maintain and difficult to destroy.
